Odd Ball
by Sunshine-M
Summary: AU, no ZA, where Carol and DAryl meet through Andrea. Caryl. Disclaimer: none of them are mine, no infringemen intended
1. Chapter 1

Daryl was sipping his morning coffee slowly.

It made no practical sense, but it tasted so different from any other cups of joe you could have after that one, he had made a habit of savoring that very first one.

He didn't turn on the TV or the radio, standing in the living room/kitchen of the two bedroom apartment he shared with his brother. He enjoyed the silence. Lord knew when Merle would be up, this would be a thing from the past. Even when he kept his mouth shut, which only happened once in a blue moon, Merle managed to make a room loud. Daryl supposed it was who his brother was, what he was made of. They were not cut from the same cloth when it came to that trait, Daryl thought, before taking another slow yet delicious sip of his precious coffee.

He felt calm, and tried not to think about what the day would be like. He did odd jobs, here and there, but he hadn't managed to find a place where he wanted to try and overstay his welcome. Instead, he was always one foot out the door even in good places. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but Merle sure asked him about it in various ways whenever he could.

What could he say? Daryl was, he guessed, an odd one. He did not run away from commitment, even though many thought so, but he needed a little something extra, as far as everything was concerned. He would move out to his own place when he would deem it time for example. It was not something he could explain, but he felt like life was made of big steps, big gestures, big moments, and unless he felt like it was time to do that big whatever, he wouldn't even give it a try. He had had chicks in his bed, had even gone out on some dates, but it had never felt like it was anything more than two people playing a game of grown-up. Or maybe it had only felt like that to him, and the chicks he had taken out, or even dated for a short while, had thought they were going forward towards something, whatever it would have been.

Daryl felt a sigh escape his lips and he wished he was just not like… that. He felt no pity for the women who had come and gone in his life, he didn't belittle them in his thoughts when realizing that they may have thought something was being built, he only felt sadness, and resignation: people didn't know him, not really, not ever. People looked at him, like he had chosen to be this way, like he was loving this life of his, this feeling he sometimes got like he was going nowhere, like he had missed a crossroad somewhere and that had resulted in him being forty and living with his older brother. People, except perhaps Merle, more often than not, didn't see what it really meant, to live this life, this odd life, where he drifted from one place to another. He was never home. He was never safe. He was always alone. And lonely. He remembered being younger, learning the difference between the two words, and realizing instinctively why it was so important.

Maybe he had always been odd. Merle had just been too loud for people to realize it until Daryl had grown up and had grown some chin hair that didn't make him look like an underage pimp. The few people he had known most of his life had assumed for a very long time that he was the way he was because his dad had been a mean drunk and his mom an even meaner addict. Some had started to realize a few years back that while he was the product of his education, nurture versus nature and all that, there was something else in him, something he couldn't pinpoint, something that made all the difference.

He tried to stop this train of thought with another sip of that first cup of coffee which was going tepid with the time he took to drink it. He was who he was. That was it.

He heard steps in the corridor, and he didn't need to turn his head to know it was Andrea, tiptoeing out of his brother's bedroom, doing the walk of shame as she would say.

Though was it really a walk of shame when you walked that walked at least three times a week and you had your own cup for coffee in the cupboard?

As Andrea nodded at him before pouring herself a short cup of coffee, Daryl wondered how this situation had come to happen, and what future it had.

"Have you seen my shoes?" She asked him in lieu of greeting.

"You left them next to the couch," he said.

He had seen them there.

Andrea, who was a quite successful lawyer in Atlanta, had been shacking up with his brother for… three years now? Maybe four? They never made it public, and it seemed that even themselves, they were not aware that they were a thing. Merle hadn't brought home a chick ever since that first night he had brought Andrea, and Daryl didn't need to ask to know that Andrea was not seeing another man. Yet, whenever she spent the night, she would "do the walk of shame", except without the shame part.

If it worked for them, Daryl had nothing more to say about it. Still, he knew that some of his and Merle's buddies thought there was more to say. Daryl thought briefly that perhaps he was odd in a more obvious fashion, but his brother was no different, and he had found a woman who had long stopped pretending this would be the last time she would fall in bed with him, and who just discreetly runs out in the morning to go back to her place. They didn't need to be lovey dovey in public. Hell, to people who met them for the first time, they were not even on friendly terms, but year after year, they had built something that worked for the both of them. Daryl had heard some of his buddies complain about their girlfriend's taking over their place, but with Andrea and Merle, it was not that. It was just them. Their way. Their odd way.

Daryl held his tongue as he found himself almost asking the blonde how she would do when his brother and her would become parents… He supposed they'd cross that bridge when they come to it, and that was it. What you saw on TV, was not necessarily what you were supposed to have, and even if society wanted you to have it, it didn't mean it would fill your every dream and desire and leave you desperately happy.

"Looking for a job?" Andrea said as she finished her coffee.

He didn't say anything but looked at her, which was all she needed.

"We're moving offices. I got a partner, and she comes with baggage the heavy kind. Therefore, we are moving offices to some place bigger. I won't move my office on my own, not while wearing Prada. I need some muscles for the day…"

"What about Merle? He's got some of those…"

"Walk of shame, remember?" She said, and they both knew she didn't mean it.

She liked the idea of doing the walk of shame, but when drunk or pushed to the limit, she would become extremely possessive of her man. They just enjoyed themselves with those theatrics.

"Lots of boxes?" He asked.

"Quite a few, yes. But once you've dismantled my furniture and put it in the truck, we should only need one trip to the new office to bring everything."

"I don't come cheap…" He said.

"I'll buy you dinner. And beers."

"You've got yourself a deal," he told Andrea, who smiled at him before putting on her expensive shoes.

She told him to join her at her office in an hour, and he prepared the tools he would need.

+.+

It didn't take them too long a time really, a couple of hours tops. Andrea was very neat, and once she had stacked her paper files and books in boxes, Daryl dismantled her office and her chair. He took care of the desk she used to receive clients, and only a few quick trips to the truck where he let Andrea watch over the furniture he was carrying were needed for them to be done with the place.

Andrea didn't look nostalgic at all, and he would even have said she looked enthusiastic, impatient to be on her way.

"How did the partner thing happen?" He asked once they got stuck in traffic.

He was not one to pry, but he could see in the way she was fidgeting she was dying to tell the story.

"There's a lawyer, she is as good as I am. We have kicked each other's ass in court for the past few months, and I felt… I knew we could do good together. Turns out she thought the same. We had drinks, and talked it through. It was fast… Michonne, by the way, that's her name. Michonne Sterling, though she could become Michonne Grimes any day now."

Daryl nodded along and gave Andrea an impressed look when she mentioned who the partner was or could be. The Grimes were known, sheriffs and all that. They had a good reputation, and having a partner in this family would certainly be good for Andrea's business. He didn't doubt that this Michonne was a great lawyer either, but just her name was already speaking volumes, even to a heathen like him.

"Michonne and I decided we would work on a big case together, things went from there… When I offered a formal partnership, she said she had a few conditions, which were not that much. She wanted to keep her paralegal, and her intern. And for some convoluted reason, she wanted the new offices to be located in an area served by a certain pizza parlor. That was all she wanted that and the promise to take on a few pro bono cases from an abuse shelter. It was all good to me. Her paralegal… She could have been a lawyer too, she's fierce. I could tell you about a bunch of cases where she whispered something into Michonne' s ear and suddenly I didn't have a case anymore… Carol… You'd like her," Andrea said, and it was so unexpected, Daryl almost forgot to put on the brakes when the car in front of them stopped.

"Is this a trap?" He asked, suspiciously, feeling like all had been smooth, so smooth… Too smooth. Things didn't come that easy to him.

"Nope."

"Did you ask me to help you so I could see this chick?"

"Yep".

"Then it's a trap."

"Nope."

He glared at Andrea.

"You're not a rabbit, this is not a trap."

"You know what I mean…"

"And you know I'm smart. So smart indeed I would never imagine I could introduce you to a girl and get away with it. What I'm doing is getting you to do the hard work for this move, and if you meet Carol, then it is what it is and you can leave when you're done."

"You say tomato…" He started, feeling a bit jumpy at the thought that he was being taken some place a woman was so they could be introduced.

"I do not say tomato. I speak lawyerish, it's different."

"You say lawyerish, I say…" He started again, and Andrea laughed.

One glance at a girl, and a quick hello exchanged, he thought. Surely that would not kill him.

+.+.+

And indeed, it didn't.

They got to the new office before Michonne's people, and they set up Andrea's office. As he was putting back together the desk, he heard the sound of the rest of the people arriving. It seemed Michonne and her crew had decided to do the move on their own.

He was the only man in the office, he thought. What was the opposite of a sausage fest?

He was under the desk, working on a screw, and sweating like a pig as the tiny device had decided to show him hell when there was a knock on the open door.

He bumped his head into the hard wood before he managed to look above the desk.

He was met by… Kismet?

He scolded himself and wondered for the umpteenth time why he had decided to start those night classes again to finally finish high school. The words he used… Merle would have hurled a bottle at him.

"Hope it didn't hurt too bad," the woman said with a smile, which seemed to hold back a smile.

She was his age he supposed, grey-hair, blue eyes, and something magnetic about her he couldn't explain.

"We Dixons have hard heads," he said lamely, and he wanted to kick himself in the ass.

"Ah! The Dixons. I know that Andrea has a predilection for the Dixons," the woman said before entering the room a couple of steps more.

This prompted him to wonder where Andrea was, but from the noise he supposed she went to help Michonne or someone else.

"For Merle. My brother," he felt compelled to add, worried for a minute this creature could think he was the one who was Andrea's.

"So that makes you…" She asked with a squint in her eye, which made him want to leap and kiss the corner of those perfect eyes.

"Daryl. Of The Dixon family." Where was this coming from?

"Carol, of the Peletier dynasty," she replied with a chuckle and he found himself laughing with her at the silliness he had expressed.

"What can I do for you, or your dynasty?" He asked.

"I do not want to put my desk together again. If Maggie hadn't helped me, I think I would have left it at the old office and that I would work from the floor from this day forward… Anyway, I don't want to do my desk. So I thought I'd make a coffee run. Do you want some coffee?"

"Is that a trick so that I will build your desk for you?" He said with a squinty eye.

Who was he kidding? He was so putting that desk together for her the moment he was done with this one and this stupid screw…

"Nope. It's just that if I want my coffee run to be believable, and even though 'Chonne will probably know I'm running away from my desk situation, I figured it would help the charade if I actually went and got everyone coffee."

"Seems clever."

"And admissible in a court of law," she said. "If I am bringing several people coffee then I can say in front of the court that I went for a coffee run."

"Sneaky. I like it."

"Thanks."

He stared at her, and she stared back.

After a while, he gave her an order for coffee, and he felt his heart sunk to his stomach when she left the room to fulfill her run. He consoled himself in remembering the glimpse he had caught of her backside as she left.

He got down with Andrea's desk, as he heard Carol get everyone's order.

When she came back, he was listening to the intern, Maggie, who was attempting to help him put back together Carol's desk by telling him what it had looked like. Spoiler alert, it had looked like a desk. Yet he didn't have the heart to tell Maggie that she was not as helpful as she hoped to be.

Carol gave him his coffee, and their fingers brushed lightly.

They spent the rest of the afternoon putting her desk back together, at a lazy pace as he would drink in her every word, feeling like a new man.

Oh, he was still odd, mind you. But tonight, when he'd come home, he'd start looking for a place of his own, and he would ask for more work hours at the bike shop he was moonlighting at.

He knew for a fact he hadn't missed a crossroad before, it had just taken its sweet time in arriving, but he was okay with that as it had given him the time and perspective to spot right away this crossroad. He knew he would go the right way, with Carol.


	2. Chapter 2

"I think we're going to need to offer Daryl a job," Michonne told Andrea as they were having lunch, just the two of them.

The blonde laughed and said:

"He is around the office so often I sometimes forget he's not part of the staff..."

"You knew, didn't you, when you brought him in on that first day that Carol would become whatever she is to him?" Michonne said, and her tone was not accusatory but there was something about it, which made Andrea think that her friend and partner was actually worried.

"I had an inkling... I don't know how to explain it really, but yeah, I had an ulterior motive..."

"Carol... She's strong, tough, or she pretends to be... I just don't want her to be hurt," Michonne said and Andrea could tell there was much more at stake.

"He will be the last person on Earth to hurt her..."

"Ok," Michonne said again, "but then we really need to find Daryl a job. He's running out of excuses to pop by."

TWDTWDTWD

Completely unaware of what was being discussed not too far from the office, Daryl found himself parked in front of the building and racking his brain for a good reason to come over.

This was pathetic, he thought, Merle kept making fun of him. And yet, he wouldn't have it any other way. It just felt right, even when he found himself like ... This.

He had found so many pretexts to come around these past couple of weeks, he could have written a book on the art of coming up with bullshit excuses to use to see somebody that no one would ever believe. Thankfully, he was not a writer.

He had seen Glenn park his bike nearby, bringing in pizzas, so offering to bring lunch was not possible. He had no legal issues he could come in to discuss (first time he was actually sad he had stirred away from trouble).

So he was left racking his brain for any idea that would get him to the third floor where his - whatever she was to him, he was not good with label - was,

He almost jumped out of his skin when someone knocked on the truck window and he was pretty sure he was blushing as he rolled down the window.

"Hey Carol, of the Peletier Dynasty," He said, trying to play it cool.

"Sup Daryl from the Dixon bloodline?" She asked with laughter in her eyes.

He'd never thought he'd have a corny habit with anybody. Yet, he did.

"Not much... You?"

She laughed, and he was unable to hold back a smile.

"Glenn saw you parked there when he came for his usual delivery half an hour ago. Do you want a slice of pizza?"

He had to admire the way she both put him on the spot for acting like a stalker but also managed to make it a nice and warm moment.

"Only fools say no to pizza," he replied, as he opened the door to get out of the truck.

"Can"t argue with that," she said.

They both walked into the building, not touching, yet close to each other, very close and extremely aware of this proximity. In the elevator, she let him push the button, and he brushed slightly against her. It made him feel like a teenager.

TWDTWD

Carol couldn't wipe the stupid grin of her face, and she didn't really care. When Glenn had mentioned that he thought he had seen Daryl parked in his truck, she had waited for the man to come up and greet them, then had realized that he was not coming up. Maggie had given her a look, and Carol had winked at her.

Getting out the building to go get Daryl had been a no brainer. Carol had noticed that he was coming up with bogus reason to come and see them. Apparently, he had taken to driving Andrea to work every time she spent the night at his place with his brother. He would come in for a cup of coffee when he did. Carol had started regretting Andrea and Merle were not your usual boring couple, who lived together, as it would have meant that Daryl would have driven her over every day.

The man was a mystery in many ways, but she felt like she was learning read him a little better with every moment they spent together.

They got into the office and she exchanged a smile with Maggie as he went for the pizza in the small kitchen. The women had discussed it before, and Carol knew that her friend hoped something would grow between her and Daryl.

"Bosses aren't around?" Daryl asked from the small kitchen.

"Nope, they decided to have an executive lunch," Carol said walking into the small place.

"An executive lunch?" Daryl said, looking like he wanted to laugh.

"Yep. Apparently, going to have martinis for lunch is an executive decision. You know this big case they were working on? We won."

"Never doubted it."

"Neither did we... But when we say it out loud, we are called cocky," Carol laughed.

"So, how are your classes going?" He asked, and she was not surprised he remembered.

She had been going to community college for evening classes to be able to become a lawyer. Being a paralegal was already something she was very proud of, but she had decided that she wanted to try and become an attorney. Michonne had supported her when she had taken the decision, a little over a year ago, but then again Michonne was the one who had nurtured the law bug in her and had supported her when she had decided to become a paralegal before.

"Good. Getting a little closer to my lawyer degree with every class I attend," Carol said. "It's a bit rough but having my paralegal background gives me the upper hand, if you will."

He gave her a look she had come to know well. He was trying to figure her out. He didn't ask, he never did as if he was afraid to pry. Yet, he wanted to understand. More accurately, he wanted to understand her. She was not sure about what he knew, what he had accurately guessed, what he had inferred… He would be one hell of a P.I.

This idea had been in her head for a while actually, both the fact that he wanted to figure her out not because she was a puzzle but because he cared, but also the fact that he had good instincts they could use in the office. He was a hunter, she could tell, and strangely, it didn't scare her. She saw the way he always came back to the office, to her she hoped, and the way he was remembering everything. She wasn't sure she could explain it. A few days before, she had asked him to take her in town where she knew a witness would be, and when they had been in the car and she had told him what she wanted, he had literally hunted the witness, who was a scareddy person thus unpredictable and he had managed to get her in a place where she could approach the witness and he would have no choice but to hear her out. She had told Michonne about her thoughts on that experience, hoping to entice her beloved boss to get the favor she didn't dare ask. The woman had already done so much for her…

It had been a good experience, all in all, on several level. She had seen what she had always known, that there was a feral side to Daryl. He had been awkward when they had met, but she had not been fooled. He just had a vibe perhaps about him, like he would rather hurt himself than hurt a woman. She had gotten good at detecting that quality in people, with her history. She could defend herself, or at least, now she could, but it was always reassuring when you met one of those men, cut from that clothe.

She must have let emotions show on her face, instead of staying her cheerful sometimes façade self, as Daryl came to sit closer to her, still not touching her.

He would never ask. He wanted to know, she could sense it in his aura if it made any sense, but he would never ask her.

"You never wondered why I didn't go straight to being a lawyer instead of becoming a paralegal?" She found herself saying.

"Wondered sometimes," he said. "Thought it was none of my business."

"What if I want to share?" She asked.

"I dunno how to answer that. 'Don't want to pressure you. 'None of my business," he started saying, and it was everything.

The way he was swallowing the beginning of his every sentence, it told her that if she told him that she had second thoughts about sharing, he would not consider her a tease or anything. He'd stand by her decision. Yet, he wanted to know. He wouldn't take something she wasn't willing to give, even if it was just a smile or something as lame.

"I was married, a zillion years ago. Before I married the guy, I studied to be a lawyer. He ... I was going to say he made me give up college, but I was ok with it at the time, being pregnant and all. I can blame many things on him, but on this I can't depict him as a tyrant. Anyway, I quit college, thinking I would start again later. It never happened. I met Michonne another zillion years later, when I was in need of legal assistance, to be free of the guy. He kept on saying I would never be able to support myself without him. Michonne never stood up for me, and weirdly, I'm very okay with it, because it allowed me to think about what he was saying, and I thought about that degree I never had finished, and I asked Michonne if she knew some lawyer who would be willing to get a part time secretary while the person worked on becoming a paralegal. It was the shortest way to becoming financially independent. Michonne was so proud when I asked, you'd have thought… I don't know… Anyway, I realized then she was not just a lawyer, she was a person, a human being with feelings, and you can forget it because she looks so fierce…"

She shook her head.

"Anyway, she said she would be willing if I didn't mind working with a loner. I could see more than what she was pretending to be. She got me free of that guy, legally, and then I enrolled back at university as she took me in as a part time secretary."

"What happened to the baby?" He asked, and she knew he knew or pretty close.

"Ed beat me one too many times, I had a miscarriage in my last trimester, and the baby had been killed by the blows we had both received. Michonne got him sent to jail for that."

"I'm sorry," Daryl said.

"So am I."

She took a deep breathe, then said:

"I know you had noticed that we were working closely with a few shelters for abused women and children. That's Michonne's and my story, how we met, how we connected. She was not abused, but her mother was…. Never tell her I said that. Anyway, I knew you had noticed, and I wanted to give you some semblance of explanation."

"You didn't owe me anything…"

"Never said I did, just that I wanted you to know. And now, I'm going to be a lawyer one day."

"To help other women in the position you had been in?"

"To help whoever needs help. You always see the shady lawyers on TV, the guy who got O.J of the hook and more, but there are other lawyers, the good ones, like Michonne and Andrea. I want to be one of those."

"You're making it damn hard to be worthy of you, "he said.

Their eyes met as his went wide, like he had never meant to say that.

"I decide who is worthy of me," she said, feeling the proverbial butterflies in her stomach, and heat in her body.

"Hey lovebirds, sorry to interrupt," Maggie said, popping her head through the door. "Andrea called and said we had a spot for you Daryl on our team, if you wanted it. Michonne and her were thinking you could do some stake outs and stuff… Not to mention we may need muscles around the office with this new case we're taking. They're waiting for your answer…"

Carol and Daryl separated, even though they had never been in each other's arms. She let out a soft laugh and said:

"I was thinking you would be a good P.I. Sure you don't have the license but you can do most of the work without it…."

"I'm shit with computer."

"Maggie is badass at it, and I can hold my own. Besides, you can always learn. I have a sneaking suspicion you would actually enjoy being able to track certain people down, knowing you're doing something good."

"I never thought of myself that way…"

"Doesn't mean it's too late to start thinking about yourself that way," Carol said, feeling braver at the thought that this was her one chance to make sure she would see the man every day, and that maybe in time…

He thought about it for a long time. At one point, he turned to her, and his hand, very lightly, came to brush against hers.

"What are the rules about fraternization?"

"We don't have rules about that. We're all grown-ups and we all trust each other to know what they're doing."

"So, if I decided to, I don't know, ask you out for burgers, or a movie, or to help me find a place to live in, that wouldn't be a problem for the bossladies?"

Carol laughed, though the thought of helping him find a place felt extremely intimate and for some reason she wanted to start browsing real estate websites to find him a home.

"They wouldn't care. And I would love to help, or have lunch with you…"

"I guess this takes care of my only objection…"

He was so close to her, she could feel his breathe on her skin, and she felt like shivering though the cold was not at fault.

"Would I need to wear a suit?"

She burst into laughter and found herself with her head pressed against his chest as she laughed some more. He was rubbing her back, and she could feel his own laughter, though more reserved.

"No suits," Carol said, gesturing to her own casual jeans and shirt.

"I think I'd like to give it a try."

"Do you want me to call them to let them know your decision?"

"How about I fixed us both some coffee, while we wait for them to come back? I'll even fix a cup for Maggie…"

"Two sugars, no cream!" They heard the brunette scream through the door.

Carol buried her head once again against Daryl's chest, and thought that it just felt good. No need for emphasis or big words or whatever. It just felt good, and right.

"Deal," she told him, raising her head toward him. "In the meantime, how about we use my computer to see what kind of places are available for rent?"

He smiled, and she did the same, as he lowered his head and their lips met.


End file.
